


Sins of the Fathers

by AellaIrene



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-13
Updated: 2011-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-21 08:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/223223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AellaIrene/pseuds/AellaIrene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things are not always as they seem. And choices must be made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sins of the Fathers

Deep inside the Palace, Sabina is giving birth. Yuri is not there, though he should be. He will go, in a moment. First, he has business to conduct. The warrants are to hand, of course, as they have been ever since the first, horrible suspicion, as his investigators searched for proof.

They found it, and Yuri wept when they told him. Xav’s son, his own nephew, little Ivan, a traitor. By his own words and breath, a traitor. Yuri is not a fool: it has taken him five years to get Sabina with child, and it is a girl. There may well not be another, and not because of Sabina. He is an old man, and spent years in Cetagandan captivity. He had thought, looking helplessly at the map of Barrayar inlaid upon his desk, that it might be as well to marry his not-yet-born daughter to Ivan, for Ivan would be a good Emperor.

It would appear that Ivan thought the same thing.

And so Ivan must die. And Xav must die as well, because he knew, of course he knew, Xav knows _everything_ , it is one of the more irritating parts of his personality. And the girls-- Sonia is close to Ivan, they grew up in the same camp. But Olivia-- if Olivia had known, she would have told him. But Olivia is married to Piotr Vorkosigan, his cousin Petya, and though Yuri hates to think such a thing of his own cousin-- it was a very convenient ambush, that had him captured by the Cetagandans. And they knew where he was. They knew where he was, and hardly anyone in his own camp knew: Constantia, and Vati, and Dono-- and Piotr. Piotr in whose territory he was, deep in the Dendarii mountains.

Piotr knew, and Yuri was captured, and Piotr Vorkosigan became a great guerrilla general, and Yuri was broken, he knows that, he knows that he could not rule without Constantia at his shoulder.

It is a terrible thought. And Yuri loves his cousin. And yet--

Olivia has not come to the Imperial Residence so often, since his father died. The last time he saw her was at the Cricket Match, when he lifted little Peaches (she has a name, but he cannot remember it. After Piotr’s mother, Aunt Claudine, he thinks) so that she could see Pavlos hit his century. Olivia used to come all the time. And she has been distant, recently--

He signs, swift, and then adds _But spare the children_. The children have nothing to do with this, Peaches is thirteen, Shrimp eleven. Pavlos is fifteen-- but no. They have nothing to do with this. They will not die for their parents’ treachery.

He initials it, ЮП, Yuri Pierre, and goes on. Not the Vordarians, they know that only his word, his will, kept them from death when the Cetagandans left. And that is all. Of his father’s six children, only two had children: Xav and Yelena. Yuri will join them, tonight.

And his daughter will be born into safety, without a cousin who would have her smothered in her crib, an uncle who would stand by, and bamboozle the galaxy into believing it a natural death.

Without kin who would betray her.

He sends the orders off. He does not ask who, or how, he does not want to know. It will be quick, that is all he says, and his Armsman-Commander nods, and goes to do his bidding.

(He does not know. He does not know that his orders will be misinterpreted, that Pavlos and Peaches will both die, that Peaches will go for a carving knife, and a panicking Armsman will kill her. That someone will mistake the Piotr Pierre on the warrant for Pavlos Xav.

He will weep, when he hears. The Armsmen will die for it. It will not help.)

It is nearly dawn, when he returns to the birthing chamber, and Sabina barely notices, bearing down as the physician orders.

“Just in time,” Constantia says, smiling, and then there is a scream from Sabina, and a wail from the tiny baby being lifted by the physician, and taken by the midwife, who wraps her in a blanket, and hands her to Yuri.

He does not know if they are expecting him to disown her, for being a girl. He never does, because the only face he is looking at is his daughter’s.

“I name you Fidelia Victoria Vorbarra,” he tells her, “And may faithfulness and victory follow you always.”


End file.
